Tonight’s the night.
Series finale.
How will it all wrap up?
Not in a tidy bundle, like some shows. More, I think, like the way the series has been written from day one, with unanswered questions, surprise successes, and disappointed dreams.
Like life.
Personally, I think Don will end up somewhere non-New York, non-Don, and finally at the last, when someone asks him his name, he’ll introduce himself as “Dick Whitman” and shake hands flashing that smug, somewhat grimace-y smile. Fade to black.
For if life has taught us anything, it’s that no matter how fast and hard we run, we can’t run away from ourselves.
No matter where you go, there you are. ~ Confucius
It just so happens that Don is excellent at hiding, running, putting up the false front for others to see. He just looks so darn successful with the women, the power, the money, the creativity. Don’t we all want to be like Don in a way? So much so that McCann Erickson was willing to spring the big bucks to buy Don.
A lot of good that did them…
They already had a Don but just didn’t know it, as evidence in the Miller Beer lunch conference.
Maybe that’s why Don ran yet again, leaving behind (pre-70’s inflation) millions. He realize that he wasn’t alone in his specialty of feeling the products.
Run, run, run, run away. ~ Jefferson Starship
Let’s be more like Peggy.
Through the bad haircut of Season One, and her repeatedly wearing one prior season outfit in the newest season, she stays true to her roots while growing.
OK, Bad Ass Peggy of “The Milk and Honey Route” set the stage for her future at M-E. Good for her! She’s earned it. Edgy Peggy needed to prove it to herself that she had the cojones to hang with the big boys. I live in a different age, I can’t even imagine the struggles and ceilings women of that era had to break through just to work, let alone succeed in the male-dominated fields.
Which brings me back to reinvention…
Is it necessary to do a complete 180 to reinvent your life? Is letting go of everything from your past a requirement for inventing a new future?
Not at all.
At least, I don’t believe it is.
I think you can take the parts that you like and work them into the new future, so you’re doing a 45 or a 90 or even a 120 degree turn without having to let go of who you really are.
I can still stand up for myself yet now do it in ways that are less confrontational, less frustrating, less angry…but still.strong. I like that I’m strong, I don’t know any other way to be, but I think in my most person relationship, the one I have with my spouse, I would like to be weak occasionally (maybe even 50% of the time). And I’d really like it if he were OK with me being weak and saw it for what it is – a huge compliment.
Why a compliment? Because by opening up and showing the not so pretty, slimy parts of who I am I’m saying to my partner, “I trust you enough to see the not-so-pretty inside and still accept me.”
The Big Need. Acceptance.
Please just tell me I’m OK.
If my partner gets to see that squishy pales underbelly and decides that I’m “needy” or “unbalanced”, well then… maybe that partner is not the person for me. Maybe he won’t understand how much risk I took in putting it all out there. Maybe he’s not ready to be my partner.
Sure, there’s a second chance allowed…
But not a third.
And that’s how I’ll reinvent myself, by being the strong one for the outside world and being the one who asks for help on the inside world – the world of two. I guess I’m saying, I’m not going to be strong on both fronts, I’m going to be real (weak AND strong) on the one that matters.
Bad Ass Peggy mixed with Vulnerable Deja. Oh what a team.
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